2009 NFL Season: Week Seven Review

After a fantastic 189-yard”revengeful” performance against Bears, Cincy B Cedric Benson is Week 7’s Game Ball winner

I will start with a “Cheerio” this week as the NFL returned to London for the third year in a row. Unfortunately for the NFL’s English fans viewing our version of football, they were not treated to an entertaining game.

The New England Patriots (5-2), led by QB Tom Brady and WR Wes Welker, continued their dominating ways by disposing of the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7 at sold-out Wembley Stadium.

The Patriots have now won 17 consecutive games against NFC opponents, the longest streak of any team against the other conference since the 1970 merger. 

With the 2009 “Own the Moment” season quickly nearing its halfway point, weekly fans are getting more clarity about who are the true “Contenders” and who are the “Pretenders.” 

But Week Seven should have been called “Blowout Week” around the NFL as six teams lost by 20 points or more and 11 teams won by 10 points or more. 

However despite the ever-increasing number of blowouts in an NFL world where anyone can see the Grand Canyon sized divide between the  “Have’s” and “Have Nots” (after seven weeks of play there  are three undefeated teams—Colts, Broncos, and Saints—and  three winless teams—Rams, Titans, and Bucs) there were a few matchups that lived up to their hype. 

With only two divisional grudges on this week’s slate, the highlight of Week Seven had to be the eight inter-conference games pitting the AFC and NFC, where conference bragging rights were at stake.

After the dust settled it was the AFC, once again, that dominated the NFC with six wins and two losses. 

The AFC’s dominance this week held true to a distinct pattern that we have seen this decade. Despite the New York Giants winning in 2007, clearly the AFC has picked up their collective game as they have won all but two Super Bowl titles (other NFC title was the Buccaneers in 2002). 

The AFC has the Indianapolis Colts led by Robo-Quarterback Peyton Manning. They seem to win 12 games every year (they beat up on the winless Rams this week).

The AFC also has the Patriots, who have won three Super Bowl titles this decade and the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers (who ended the Vikings winning streak this week).

Even though two of the three big AFC franchises stumbled early (Steelers and Patriots), you knew they would get back in the race at the top of the NFL, and they have so far. 

The AFC’s Big Three is almost always in the mix come playoff time, and do not expect anything different this season. 

Each team has a quality quarterback making timely throws, solid running games providing balance, and attacking defenses who turn turnovers into points. 

The Steelers won their fourth straight game, this time disposing of one of the NFC’s two unbeatens, 27-17. The Steelers, fueled by their resurging defense—wonder if the return of Troy “The Hair” Polamalu has anything to do with it—bent but didn’t break in their victory that put the first “L” on the Vikings, who outgained Pittsburgh 386-259, but only scored 10 points offensively. 

Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau’s defenders were able to stop Vikings QB Brett Favre (34-of-51, 334 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT), All-World RB Adrian Peterson, emerging receiver Sidney Rice, and the rest of the Vikes offense deep in Pittsburgh territory when it mattered most—three big defensive stands. 

The Steelers were able to turn back Peterson three times (from the half-yard line) on a crucial early game goalline stand that left the score 13-10 in favor of the home team. 

But the two biggest game-changing plays happened when the 2008 Super Bowl champs needed it most, especially with their offense sputtering at times.  Other than a short Peterson touchdown run, there were no passing touchdowns. And easily the Vikings' biggest play was a Percy Harvin 88-yd kickoff return. 

Steelers LB LaMarr Woodley’s 77-yard fumble return for a touchdown after Favre was stripped in the third quarter and LB Keyaron Fox’s 82-yard interception return for a touchdown on a Favre dump-off pass late in the fourth quarter were the keys in ending any of the venerable quarterback’s comeback magic this week.

Favre said after his team’s first loss of 2009, “There were a lot of what ifs, a lot of reasons we didn’t win, the red zone was one of them. (The Steelers) are physical, and they were as good as we thought they’d be”.  

The Steelers held Peterson to only 69 rushing yards—their 25th straight game without allowing a 100-yard r